Critical Care

The 20-bed Coronary Care Unit/Cardiac Surgery Unit (CCU) is an all-RN unit that provides care to cardiac surgical and cardiac medical adult patients. Cardiac surgical patients come directly from the Cardiac OR under anesthesia. Protocol-driven nursing care, along with close contact with the cardiac surgeon, allows the bedside RN to reach goals of extubation and getting the patient out of bed as quickly as possible.

Our two, 12-bed Intensive Care Units (ICU) serve the region’s most critically ill patients. As a trauma center and the area’s most advanced intensive care service provider, our nurses care for a great number of trauma patients. The units also see many septic patients, as well as those with post-surgical complications. Nurses, intensivists, and respiratory therapists all work closely together to care for patients. Our team also includes decentralized pharmacists, social workers, and palliative care specialists.

Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has 29 private suites with space for parents to stay with their baby 24 hours a day. Individual nurse work stations are located between patient rooms for an optimal level of care at the bedside. Nurses who work in the NICU have access to the latest technology and a modern unit in the new Penobscot Pavilion that opened in 2016.

Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center’s six-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) serves children from birth to age 18. Our PICU nurses also deliver care to adults while serving in their capacity as ICU nurses.

Our patient population is varied and includes trauma, cardiology, neurology, and respiratory patients, as well as children with rare genetic diseases. We have patients on ventilators and oscillators and are supported by pediatric intensivists around the clock.